Like Water for Chocolate
Studio album by Common
Released	March 28, 2000
Recorded	1999–2000 Electric Lady Studios (New York, New York) Studio A (Dearborn Heights, Michigan)
Genre	Hip-hop alternative hip-hop conscious hip-hop progressive rap[1]
Length	77:51
Label	MCA
Producer	Questlove(alsoexec.) Common(co-exec.) Derek Dudley(co-exec.) J Dilla James Poyser DJ Premier D'Angelo Karriem Riggins
Common chronology
One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997) Like Water for Chocolate (2000) Electric Circus (2002)
Singles from Like Water for Chocolate
"The 6th Sense" Released: February 15, 2000 "The Light" Released: July 18, 2000 "Geto Heaven Remix T.S.O.I. (The Sound of Illadelph)" Released: April 16, 2001

Like Water for Chocolate is the fourth studio album by American rapperCommon, released on March 28, 2000, throughMCA Records. It was Common's first major label album and was both a critical and commercial breakthrough, receiving widespread acclaim from major magazine publications and selling 70,000 copies in its first week.^[2] The album was certifiedGold on August 11, 2000, by theRecording Industry Association of America.^[3] According toNielsen SoundScan, the album had sold 748,000 copies by March 2005.^[4] The video for "The Light" was frequently shown onMTV, adding to Common's exposure. The album also formally marked the formation of theSoulquarians, a collective composed ofQuestlove (ofThe Roots),J Dilla (formerly ofSlum Village), keyboardistJames Poyser, soul artistD'Angelo and bassistPino Palladino, among numerous other collaborators. This group of musicians would also be featured on Common's next album,Electric Circus.

The album's cover photo,1956 Alabama byGordon Parks, is a photo of a young black woman inAlabama, dressed for church, and drinking from a "Colored Only"drinking fountain.^[1][5]

Following 1997'sOne Day It'll All Make Sense, Common moved toNew York City where he began collaborating with the Soulquarians atElectric Lady Studios. It was there that Ahmir Thompson (Questlove) who oversaw the album's production, introduced Common toD'Angelo. Thompson had been doing a great deal of producing there with several members of the Soulquarians, including D'Angelo. The track "Geto Heaven Part Two" was originally supposed to be a track on D'Angelo's 2000 albumVoodoo, but was traded for "Chicken Grease," a track which Common had intended to include onLike Water for Chocolate.^[6][7] Questlove on "Chicken Grease":

By mid'99 theSoulquarians were in full swing (D,Me,Jay Dee,James Poyser) and we were working on Common'sLike Water for Chocolate when we came up with this lethal jam. It was so good that D pulled me to the side and said 'I ain't noIndian giver ... but I ain't lettin Com walk off with this song..'He called me 3 times that morning begging to ask Com for that track. Com agreed, and we named it 'Chicken Grease' after a phrase thatPrince uses when he wants his guitarist to play a 9thminor chord while playing16th notes.^[7]

The titleLike Water for Chocolate comes from the 1989Laura Esquivel novelLike Water for Chocolate, which was adapted intothe movie of the same name in 1992.^[8][9] The phrase "Like water for chocolate" is of Spanish origin (translated,como agua para chocolate). In many Latin American countries, hot chocolate is made with water rather than milk. The phrase refers to someone who has reached their boiling point, like water ready to be used to make chocolate. In an interview with Combustible the Poet, Common compared the main character Tita de la Garza's passion for food with his passion for music:

Actually the album is named after a movie of the same title. In the movie the main character was a really good cook. She would always be cooking for people. Whenever she would cook, she would really put a lot of emotion into it. So when people would eat her cooking, they were able to feel the same emotions she felt while cooking it. You feel me? So this is the same thing. I put all my heart, my mind and my rawness into these tracks. So I hope that people can feel that when they listen to the album.^[10]

In an interview on MTV, Common added:

I first saw the title and thought that it was real interesting, and I was like, 'Man, this is different.' It made me think, 'What does it mean?'. And it was appealing to me enough to dig into a meaning for it. So, I used "Like Water For Chocolate" to represent the water side in me, which is a Pisces, and the chocolate represents the soul, the blackness in the music.^[11]

Another popular interpretation of the album title ties in the phrase with the image on the cover of the album. Using the word 'chocolate' to symbolise people of dark skin color and the words 'like water' to describe the racially provocative concept of providing drinking water of exactly the same likeness for two different races alludes to the famous image and the themes of race that are found within the lyrical content of the album.

Like Water for Chocolate is notable for itsAfrocentric themes. It borrows from theAfrobeat genre on the track "Time Travelin' (A Tribute ToFela)", theTony Allen-sampling "Heat" and the Slum Village-assisted "Thelonius".MC Lyte andMos Def join Common for the amusing "A Film Called (Pimp)" and "The Questions," respectively. In the former, Common sends up his own "conscious" image with a skit depicting him as a hypocritical woman-beater.

Like Common's previous two albums,Like Water for Chocolate closes withspoken word recited by Common's fatherLonnie "Pops" Lynn. A slightly altered version of the album was released after its success on the charts, with theMacy Gray-assisted "Geto Heaven Remix T.S.O.I. (The Sound of Illadelph)" replacing the original.

As of 2011, the musical interludes on tracks such as "A Film Called Pimp" and "Time Travelling" have been removed from all online versions of the album, possibly due to unconfirmed sample-clearing issues.^[12]

Like previous albums from Common, the subject matter discussed inLike Water for Chocolate is of a socially conscious nature. Typically,conscious hip hop's greatest following isunderground, and conscious hip hop artists do not achieve great mainstream success.^[13][14] Yet despite being Common's first commercially successful album,Like Water for Chocolate maintains the same level of concern and social responsibility that had previously been seen in Common's first three albums. The album contains significant afrocentric elements which are particularly evident on "Time Travelin' (A Tribute to Fela)" and "Time Travelin' (Reprise)." Both tracks discuss the ills of modern society and are a tribute toFela Kuti, a pioneer ofAfrobeat music and a prominenthuman rightsactivist, with "Time Travelin' (Reprise) featuring Kuti's son,Femi Kuti. Track 2, "Heat" samplesTony Allen, Fela Kuti's one-time fellow band member and co-founder of the Afrobeat genre.

Also unique are "Payback is a Grandmother" and "A Song for Assata." "Payback is a Grandmother" is a continuation of the series of "Stolen Moment" songs that appeared onOne Day It'll All Make Sense, whereby Common weaves a fictional tale in which he pursues a thief (on this occasion the thugs who have robbed his grandmother). Amidst the intricate caper, the song emphasizes the importance of family values. As Common says in the song's intro "I don't know what was on y'all niggaz birds to go up to the boat—and start robbin old folks". The song ends in a skit involving police officers at the scene of a crime where, breaking out of character, one of the officers can be heard saying "the skit definitely needs more added to it ... Someone getPrince Paul on the phone please"—the last remark recognizing Prince Paul's reputation as a pioneer of thealbum skit.

"A Song for Assata" chronicles thearrest,trial,incarceration andCubanpolitical asylum ofAssata Shakur (a member of theBlack Panther Party, after whom Common named his daughter, Omoye Assata Lynn). The spoken-word piece at the end of the track is a quote from Assata Shakur. During the album's creation, Common traveled toHavana, Cuba, where he met and talked with Shakur.^[5] The excerpt used details Shakur's thoughts on what freedom is and what it means to be free.^[5] As she notes:

I know a whole more about what freedom isn't
Than about what it is, cause I've never been free.
I can only share my vision with you of the future, about what freedom is.

Working as both a battle song and self-reflection, the sensuous "Nag Champa (Afrodisiac for the World)" sees Common proclaiming himself "TheEarth, Wind, and Fire of hip hop" while admitting "ByRakim andShort I been inspired"—a comment which compounds the two very contrasting rap artists. Common goes on to note:

The mind is funny, how it's spent on gettin' it [money]
I'm sittin wit descendants ofAbraham
Who say the jam is "Money, Cash, Hoes"

"Nag Champa" is one of the rare occurrences in which Common's frequent collaborator, producerJ Dilla, takes on the role of singer. Common later explained:

When I was working onLike Water for Chocolate I would go to Detroit like two to three times a month. When we would go toJay Dee's basement we would always burnnag champaincense, that's where I got that title from. I was listening toSlum Village a lot, so I was influenced by them. With "Nag Champa," which was either the first or the second song forLike Water for Chocolate, we had it for a long time with no chorus. We kept trying but there wasn't nothing good coming out. I took T3 and them to the studio to work with me on the chorus; T3 started chanting something, he didn't finish, but he had a little idea. Jay Dee heard and started really singing it and got it together. Jay had an incredible voice-he actually was going to do a singing album. We used to talk about that when he would stay in LA.^[15]

Although Questlove was the album's executive producer, a large deal of the production work was handled by Jay Dee (akaJ Dilla) ofSlum Village andThe Ummah. Common and Jay Dee both hailed from theGreat Lakes region (Jay Dee fromDetroit and Common fromChicago) and were good friends. The track "Thelonius" was even placed on bothLike Water for Chocolate and Slum Village's 2000 releaseFantastic, Vol. 2.

Common also wanted to work withDJ Premier, citingGang Starr as one of his favorite groups to listen to. In an interview with New Jeru Poet, Common described his motivation to work with DJ Premier:

Like you said, being that he is one of the most respected producers, I really loved his music throughout the time. Gang Starr has always been one of my favorite groups. I've always wanted to work with him. It was time. I connected with him and seen him in a couple of places. I told him that I wanted to work with him. It took a little time to get up with him but eventually, we got up. That was the last song I recorded for 'Like Water For Chocolate'. We released 'Dooinit' first and then the single and video for 'The 6th Sense'. Then, we followed it up with 'The Light'.^[16]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]
Consumer Guide	A−[18]
Entertainment Weekly	B[19]
NME	8/10[20]
Pitchfork	8.7/10[21]
Rolling Stone	[22]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[23]
The Source	[24]
Spin	8/10[25]
USA Today	[26]

Like Water for Chocolate received widespread acclaim from music critics.Rolling Stone's Kris Ex called Common "a hip-hop MC willing to actually examine himself through his art".^[22]NME's Stevie Chick described him as a "great storyteller" who is "equal parts philosopher and documentarian."^[20]Spin's Peter S. Scholtes praisedLike Water for Chocolate as "his most aggressive and powerful record yet",^[25] andThe Wire also hailed it as his best album.^[27] Akiba Solomon ofThe Source wrote that the album finds "a more worldly Common ... creating full-fledged jazz, funk and soul songs".^[24] InMojo, Andy Gill calledLike Water for Chocolate the "most user-friendly contribution so far to the wave of 'conscious' rap."^[28]RapReviews critic Steve "Flash" Juon wrote: "From 'Payback is a Grandmother' all the way to the finale 'Pop's Rap III' you'll find your ears have been smothered in a sweet darkness that Dove has never been able to wrap in foil and sell for ninety-nine cents. You may in fact be coming down off a hip-hop sugar high. Not to worry – just hit random play and any track on this album will give you another fix."^[29]

Q describedLike Water for Chocolate as "wholemeal hip hop: chewy and a wee bit bland but nutritious all the same."^[30] In a mixed review, Sal Cinquemani ofSlant Magazine felt that the album "certainly attempts to make change (musicallyand socially), but part of my disappointment comes from the high expectations that naturally arise when an artist tries to break from the norm", concluding that "maybe if there were more hip-hop artists like him, the burden wouldn't be placed solely on one rapper's shoulders."^[31]

In 2004,PopMatters'Marc Lamont Hill named the album his personal favorite, writing:

To me, a favorite album isn't necessarily the best album in the collection. A favorite album is the one that you wrap yourself in when you're feeling happy, sad, angry, lonely, or nostalgic. A favorite album is the one that you feel personally connected to in ways that are difficult to explain. For me, that album is Common'sLike Water For Chocolate.^[32]

The musiconline magazinePitchfork placedLike Water for Chocolate at number 169 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.^[33]

The album's hit single, "The Light" received a2001 Grammy Award nomination forBest Rap Solo Performance.^[34]

The album was included in the book1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[35]

Following the success ofLWFC, Common continued collaborating with the Soulquarians for his next album,Electric Circus. It featured the Soulquarians more prominently thanLike Water for Chocolate, but was not nearly as successful because of its more eclectic vision, and relatively poor promotion fromMCA Records.Electric Circus was considered a commercial disappointment, selling just over 200,000 copies, whereas its predecessor sold over twice as many.^[36]

Sample credits

• "Cold Blooded" contains elements from "Funkin' for Fun", written byGeorge Clinton Jr.,Glenn Goins, andGarry Shider; performed byParliament.
• "The Light" contains elements from "Open Your Eyes", written byBobby Caldwell,Norman Harris, and Bruce Malament; performed by Bobby Caldwell.
• "The 6th Sense" contains elements from "Allustrious", written byKejuan Muchita andAlbert Johnson; performed byMobb Deep.
• "Payback Is a Grandmother" contains elements from "The Payback", written byJames Brown,Fred Wesley, andJohn Starks; performed by James Brown.
• "Geto Heaven Part Two" contains replayed elements from "Ghetto Heaven", written byPeter Lord,Sandra St. Victor, andVernon Smith.
• "Pops Rap III... All My Children" contains re-sung elements from "Next Lifetime", written byErykah Badu and Anthony Scott.

* Track listing, production credits, and sample credits are taken from the album's liner notes.

• Common – lead vocals(1-15), handclaps(3)

• Ready for the Majors atLos Angeles Times

• 2000 albums
• Common (rapper) albums
• Albums produced by DJ Premier
• Albums produced by J Dilla
• Albums produced by Questlove
• MCA Records albums
• Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios

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